\chapter*{Preface}

\index{PROBE}

PROBE is a national core facility for large scale protein analysis using mass spectrometry. As the leading laboratory within The Norwegian Proteomics Consortium (NorProteomics), which aims to improve and disseminate proteomics expertise throughout Norway, PROBE is funded by the University of Bergen and The Research Council of Norway, and offers services within proteomics analysis, ranging from sample protein identification to comparison of protein expression profiles between different samples.

This thesis is a presentation of \index{HP LIMS}HP LIMS, a laboratory information management system (LIMS) for managing heavy peptide data. Heavy peptides are molecules used in experiments at PROBE, and are purchased from external vendors and delivered to the laboratory in tubes positioned in individual wells on 12x8-well plates.

Laboratories all have different requirements and needs that govern their acquisitions of new information systems. The HP LIMS project was conceived by PROBE during the fall of 2010, as more and more heavy peptides were procured for the use in research experiments in the laboratory. A need for an information system that was capable of organizing and storing data about these heavy peptides, and generally aid in some of the cumbersome processes involved in their workflow for handling these heavy peptides, arose as the amount of heavy peptide data increased. The project has been in development for approximately 18 months, and the application has been gradually introduced into the workflow for handling heavy peptides at PROBE.

HP LIMS is implemented as a web application to facilitate users' need for accessing the system from several different locations without having to install software. The implementation has been based upon Vaadin, a pure Java web application framework.
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\noindent The source code of HP LIMS is open source and is available on Google Code: \texttt{http://hp-lims.googlecode.com}